Three years after its creation, the blockchain-based company, which vowed to improve flight safety, looks back at its accomplishments and envisages new opportunities that the aviation industry offers.
It’s hard to find someone who would eagerly board a plane if there was a chance that the pilot had bought his license or faked his logbook during flight training. But how many of us really know if we are boarding a safe aircraft on our family trip to Rome or a safari in Africa? It becomes less of a privilege and more of a need to verify information received from providers of various services, and the aviation industry is not an exception. At the same time, blockchain technology is penetrating our everyday life with increasing speed, starting from electricity bills and ending with the pilot flight logs.
Per aspera ad astra
Aeron was founded by a team of certified pilots, aviation engineers and aviation enthusiasts. Since 2016, the company has been developing the idea of using blockchain technology to improve safety in the aviation industry. Initially, it introduced Aerotrips.com — a portal for booking private flights and for finding flight schools all over the world for aviation students and pilots. The company says it is not just a portal but the center of the whole ecosystem, supported by the Aeron (ARN) token, which is available on some of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance, HitBTC and others.
In 2018, the company claimed to have released electronic flight log formats into the public domain, fully compliant with FAA and EASA requirements after discussions with aviation authorities. Later, the team also informed its community that Aerotrips.com would be completely integrated into the Ethereum blockchain.
A year later, in April 2019, Aeron launched a membership program for aviation professionals, deciding not to stop there but to expand their target audience: The company launched CryptoBonusMiles, which provides frequent flyers with a wallet for collecting special bonus points on top of the rewards provided by standard airline loyalty programs.
Finally, the Aeron Pilot application — which, according to Aeron, makes pilots’ flight log recordings immutable — has become available on the Apple App Store, Google Play and Galaxy Store. This application allows pilots to not only track their flight history from their smartphone but also to locate the departure and arrival airfields, track the license renewals and more.
Aeron also puts effort into keeping up with smartwatch technology: In September 2019, the company tweeted that it had adapted its pilot application for Samsung, Garmin and other leading-brand smartwatches, and it is now under testing.
Over the past three years, the company has undertaken a long journey. It all started with the idea of leveraging blockchain technology for aviation safety but soon evolved into a whole ecosystem with a variety of products and services. Some of the company’s latest accomplishments include the migration of the whole ecosystem to the Binance Chain as well as joining the Binance Chain Alliance. Apart from the Aeron Pilot application, a dedicated CryptoBonusMiles mobile application has been launched as well, targeted at anyone who flies on commercial airlines. The app features integration with over 150 airline loyalty programs.
Booking.com’s affiliate partner program is being integrated into the CryptoBonusMiles application, adding hotel booking to the flight search and booking already available in CBM shop.
The company announced that most of its milestones for the past years were achieved as envisaged, but it is hardly the end of the story.
The sky’s the limit
Aeron’s roadmap has been expanded to the second quarter of 2020. At the end of 2019, the company integrated professional flight excursions into its portal, and the Aviation Authority portal and aircraft kits marketplace are scheduled for the first half of this year.
The future as we often imagine it, as shown in various science fiction blockbusters, might soon become a reality. With the development of on-demand aviation and electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles under the project Uber Air, we could be facing increased demand for aviation safety solutions. Over the past years, blockchain technology has proven its potential to contribute to this field. This means that there might be an opportunity for the blockchain community to become contributors to the future of air mobility.
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